Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion – American Piety in the 21st Century – September 2006 study and there are some very interesting things in there. Here are a few that caught my eye:
- 13.5% of Evangelical Christians have doubts that God exists (p.14)
- 33.1% of Catholics never read their Bible (p.14)
- Less than 25% of Mainline Protestants attend church weekly (p.14)
- 47.4% of all respondents believe that God is angry (p.29)
- Belief that God is angry is not very motivational (p.30 & 32)
- African-Americans overwhelmingly believe that God is angry (p.31)
- Those that believe God is engaged in this world are far more likely to oppose abortion than those that think God is distant. (p.33)
- 72.6% of all respondents believe in committment in marriage (p.32)
- A very even distribution of all respondents think that the gov’t should distribute wealth more evenly (p.35)
- 69.9% of all respondents think that we should allow prayer in public schools (p.35)
- There is a large variation on what it means to be a good person (p.36)
- Church attenders, evangelicals and people that think God is angry are the largest supporters of expanded gov’t authority (p.39)
- Almost 70% of all respondents disagree that God favors the US (p.42)
- 27.2% of females believe that they can talk to the dead (p.48)
Interesting stuff.
Less than 25% of mainline protestants attend church?? Wow…wonder what the PROTEST is about???